September 1910.Shorthand report unrevised by the lecturer.
All rights reserved by Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag, Dornach.
English translation by G. A. Kaufmann, edited by H. Collison.

IN
Munich, as most of you will be aware, beside repeating last
year's representation of Edouard Schuré's drama, The
Children of Lucifer, we produced a Rosicrucian Mystery
Play which seeks in manifold ways to represent some
of the truths that are connected with our Movement. On
the one hand, the Mystery Play was intended as an example,
showing how that which inspires all theosophical life can also
pour itself out into Art. On the other hand, we must not forget
that this Play contains very much of our spiritual-scientific
teachings, in a form in which we shall perhaps only discover it
during years to come. This, above all, must not be
misunderstood. You should take pains to read the things that
are contained in it, — I do not say between the lines,
for they are in the actual words, but they are there in a
spiritual way. If you were really to take the Rosicrucian
Mystery Play in earnest, and look for the things that it
contains during the next few years, it would not be necessary
for me to give any lectures at all for many years to come. You
would discover many things which I am giving in lectures
on all kinds of subjects.

It
will, however, be more practicable for us to seek these things
together than alone. In a certain sense, it is very good for
that which lives in Spiritual Science to be among us in this
form. To-day, therefore, taking our start from the Rosicrucian
Mystery Play, I should like to speak of certain properties of
human self-knowledge. But we must first call to mind how the
individuality, living and working in the body of Johannes
Thomasius, is characterised in this Play. Hence, I should like
this lecture on self-knowledge to begin with a recitation
of those passages which refer to the self-knowledge of
Johannes.

(The
second scene: ‘Know thou thyself, O man!’ and the ninth scene
‘O man, feel thou thyself!’ were read out aloud at this
point.)

In
these two scenes, ‘Know thou thyself, O man’
and ‘O man, feel
thou thyself,’ two stages of development in the unfolding of
the soul are brought before us. I beg you not to think it
strange if I now say the following: I am in no way opposed to
the Rosicrucian Mystery Play being interpreted as I have
sometimes heard other poems interpreted in theosophical
circles. For in this Rosicrucian Mystery there may well come
before our souls in a more living and immediate form what I
have often said in relation to other works of art I have
interpreted. I never hesitated to say: Though the plant or
flower does not know what the human being who beholds it finds
therein, nevertheless, the flower contains what he finds.
I said this once when I was about to interpret Faust. It
is not necessary for the poet, when he actually wrote the poem,
to have exactly known or felt in the words all that was
afterwards found there. I can assure you, nothing of what I may
now or subsequently attach to this Mystery Play, and of which I
know that it is really contained therein, came to me
consciously when the several scenes were created. The scenes
grew out of themselves, like the leaves of the plant. One
cannot produce such a form by first having the idea, and
then translating it into the outer form. I always found it very
interesting to see it coming into being, scene by scene. Other
friends, too, who learnt to know the scenes one by one, always
said. How strange it is; it always comes out differently from
what one had imagined.

The
Mystery Play is like a picture of the evolution of mankind in
the evolution of a single man. And I will emphasise, for real
and true feeling one cannot shroud oneself in
abstractions when one wishes to set forth Theosophy. Each
human soul is different from another, and must indeed be
different; for everyone experiences his own evolution, in all
that is given as our general teaching, we can only receive
guiding lines. Hence the full truth can only be given if we
take our start from an individual soul, — representing a
single human individuality in a fully individual and
characteristic way. If, therefore, any one studies the
character of Johannes Thomasius, seeking to translate into
theories of human evolution what is specifically said of him,
he would be making an entire mistake. He would be much in error
if he imagined: ‘I myself shall experience just what Johannes
Thomasius experienced.’ That which Johannes Thomasius has to
experience applies indeed to every man as to its general
tendency and direction. Nevertheless, to undergo these
individual experiences one would have to be Johannes Thomasius!
Everyone is a Johannes Thomasius his own way. Thus, everything
is set forth in a fully individual way, and by this very fact
it presents in as true a way as possible, through individual
figure, the characteristic evolution of the human being in his
soul.

Therefore, a broad basis had to be created. Thomasius is first
shown on the physical plane. Single experiences of his soul are
indicated, such, for example, as this one, which cannot but be
of great significance: — We are told how at a time not
very long ago, he deserted a being who was devoted to him in
faithful love. That is a thing that often happens, but it works
differently on one who is striving to undergo an inner
evolution. It is a deep and profound truth: He who is to
undergo a higher evolution does not attain self-knowledge by
brooding into himself, but by diving other beings. By
self-knowledge we must know that we are come from the Cosmos.
And we can only dive down by transmuting our own self into
another self. To begin with we transmuted into the beings once
near to us in life. This therefore, is an example of the
conscious experience of one's own self within another.
Johannes, having got deeper down into himself, with his self
dives down in self-knowledge into another being — into
that being whom he had brought bitter pain. So, then we see how
Thomasius dives down in self-knowledge. Theoretically we may
say: ‘If you would know the flower, you must dive into the
flower.’ Self-knowledge, however, is most readily attained when
we dive down into the events in the midst of which we ourselves
have stood in some other way. So long as we are in our own
self, we go through the outer experiences. Over against a true
self-knowledge, that which we think of the life of other beings
is a mere abstraction. For Thomasius, to begin with, the
experiences of other human beings become his own experience.
Here, for example, was one Capesius, describing his
experiences. We can well understand how such experiences arise
in life; Thomasius, however, receives them differently. He
listens, but his listening (it is described so in one of the
later scenes) is different. It is as though he were not there
at all with his ordinary self. Another, deeper faculty reveals
itself. It is as though he himself entered into the soul of
Capesius and experienced what is going on within that
soul.

It
is exceedingly significant when he becomes estranged from
himself. For this indeed is inseparable from self-knowledge:
one must tear oneself free of oneself and go out into another.
It is indeed significant for Thomasius when, having heard all
these speeches, he finds himself obliged to say: —

“A mirrored picture 'twas of fullest life
That showed me to myself in clearest lines:
This spirit-revelation makes me feel
That most of us protect and train one trait
And one alone in all our character,
Which thus persuades itself it is the whole.
I sought to unify these many traits
In mine own self and boldly trod the path
Which here is shown, to lead unto that goal;
And it hath made of me a nothingness.”

Why
did it make of him a nothingness? Because he dived down
through self-knowledge into the other beings. Brooding into his
own inner life, makes a man proud and arrogant. True
self-knowledge leads at first to the pain of diving down into
other selves. Johannes listens to the words of Capesius. He
experiences in the other soul the words of Felicia. He follows
Strader into his cloistered loneliness. All this, to begin
with, is abstraction; he has not yet come to the point to which
he is afterwards guided through his pain. Self-knowledge is
deepened by meditation in the inner self. That which was shown
in the first scene, is now revealed by deepened self-knowledge,
which — rising out of the abstraction — enters into
reality. The words which you have heard resounding
through the centuries — words of the Delphic oracle
— gain a new life for the human being at this point; yet
to begin with it is a life of estrangement from his own self.
Johannes, as one who is in process of self-knowledge, dives
down into all other beings. He lives in air and water, rocks
and streams, — not in himself. All these words which we
can only shew resounding from outside, are really words
of meditation. At the very moment when the curtain rises, we
must conceive the words that sound forth in all
self-knowledge — we must conceive them far, far louder
than they can be presented on the stage. Then the self-knower
dives down into a multitude of other beings. He learns to know
the things into which he enters thus. And now the same
experience, which he already had before, comes before him in a
most terrible way. It is a deep truth. Self-knowledge, when it
takes its course in this way, leads us to look at ourselves
quite differently than we ever did before. It leads us to learn
to feel our own Ego as a stranger!

In
fact, it is the outer vehicle of man which he feels most near
to himself. A human being of our time is apt to feel it far
more nearly when he cuts his finger than when he is hurt by a
false judgment passed by his fellowman. How much more
does it hurt the human being of to-day when he cuts his finger
than when he hears a false judgment! Yet he is only cutting
into his bodily vehicle.

This is the thing that emerges in self-knowledge: we learn to
feel our body as an instrument. It is not so difficult for a
man to feel his hand as an instrument when he uses it to grasp
an object; but he now learns to feel the same with one or
another portion of the brain. This feeling of the brain as of
an instrument occurs at a certain stage of self-knowledge.
Things become localised. When we drive a nail in the wall, we
know that we are doing it with a certain tool. Now we are also
aware that in doing so we make use of this or that part of the
brain. These things become objective — external to us. We
learn to know our brain as something that is really separated
from us. Self-knowledge brings about this objectivity of
our own bodily vehicle, until at length it is as foreign to us
as our external tools. And as we begin thus to feel our bodily
nature as an objective thing, thereby we also begin to live in
the outer Universe. Only because a man still feels his body as
his own, he is not clear about it; he thinks there is a
boundary between the air outside him and the air within. He
says to himself that he is there within; and yet, within
him is the same air as outside him. Take then the substance of
the air; it is within and at the same time without. And so it
is in every case so it is with the blood, and with all that is
bodily. In a bodily sense, man cannot be either within or
without. That is mere Maya. Inasmuch as the bodily ‘inside’
becomes external to us, it is prolonged into the world outside
us, into the Cosmos. And so it is, in deed and truth.

The
pain of feeling oneself a stranger to oneself, — this was
intended in the first scene. It is the pain of feeling oneself
estranged from oneself, by finding oneself in all outer things.
Johannes' own bodily vehicle is like an entity that is outside
him. Feeling his own body outside of himself, he sees the other
body approaching him, — the body of the being whom he has
deserted. This other one approaches him, and he has learned to
speak with that other being's own words. This tells him that
his self has now expanded to the other being:

“Ah, bitter sorrow hath he brought to me;
So utterly I trusted him of old.
He left me lonely with my sorrow's pain,
He robbed me of the very warmth of life,
And thrust me deep beneath the chill, cold ground.”

The
reproach comes vividly into our soul, only when we are bound to
utter the suffering of the other one, with which our own self
is connected; for our own self has now dived down into the
other self. Such is the real deepening of things.
Johannes at this point is really in the pain which he
has caused; he feels himself poured out into it and again
awakened. What does he really experience? Taking it all in all,
we find that the ordinary man undergoes such an experience only
in the state that we call Kama-loca. The candidate for
Initiation has to experience, already in this world, what the
normal human being undergoes in the spiritual world. He
must undergo within the physical body the Kama-loca experiences
which in the ordinary course are undergone outside the
physical. Therefore, all the characteristics which we may
understand as properties of Kama-loca are presented here as
experiences of Initiation. Just as Johannes dives down
into the soul whom he has given pain, so must the normal man in
Kama-loca dive down into the souls to whom he gave pain and
suffering. As though a box-on-the-ears were given back to him,
so must he feel the pain. There is only this difference: while
the Initiate experiences these things within the physical body,
the other human being undergoes them after death. He who
experiences them now will live in quite a different way when
Kama-loca comes.

However, even that which man can undergo in Kama-loca, may be
experienced in such a way that he is not yet free. It is
a difficult task to become completely free. It is one of the
most important experiences of spiritual development in our time
(in the Graeco-Latin age it was not yet so) to realise
how infinitely difficult it is to get free of oneself. A most
important Initiation-experience is expressed in the words
wherein Johannes feels himself fettered to his own lower body.
His own being appears to him as a being to whom he is
enchained: —

“I feel the chains that hold me chained to thee.
So fast was not Prometheus riveted
Upon the naked rocks of Caucasus,
As I am riveted and forged to thee.”

That is a thing essentially connected with self-knowledge. It
is a secret of self-knowledge.; we must only apprehend it
in the right way.

Have we really become better men by becoming earthly men,
— by diving down into our earthly vehicles? Or should we
be better if we were able to be alone in our inner life,
— if we could simply cast the vehicles aside? Superficial
people may well ask, when they first meet with the theosophical
life, Why should one first dive down into an earthly body? The
simplest thing would be to remain above; then we should not
have all the misery of diving down. Why have the wise
Powers of Destiny plunged us into the body?

In
simple feeling, one can explain a little if one says that
Divine-spiritual forces have been working at this earthly body
for millions of years. Precisely inasmuch as it is so, we
should make more of ourselves than we have the force to do. Our
inner forces are inadequate! The fact is, if we merely wish to
be what we are in our own inner being, — if we are not
corrected by our vehicles — we cannot possibly be equal
yet to what the Gods have made. Life shows itself in this way.
Here upon Earth, man is transplanted into his bodily sheaths -
sheaths that that have been prepared by beings during tree
Worlds. Man still has the task of building and developing his
inner being. Here between birth and death, man is an evil being
through the elasticity of his bodily sheaths. In Devachan he is
once more a better being, for he is there received by the
Divine-spiritual beings who pour him through with their own
forces. In time to come — the Vulcan era — he will
be a perfect being. Here upon Earth, he is a being who gives
way to one lust or another. The heart, for example, is so
wisely ordered that it withstands for decades the attacks which
man directs against it with his excesses — as, for
instance, with his drinking coffee.

Such as he can be to-day by virtue of his own forces, man goes
his way through Kama-loca. In Kama-loca he shall learn to know
what he can by his own force alone. And that, in truth, is
nothing good. Man, to describe himself, cannot describe himself
with any predicate of beauty. He must describe himself as
Johannes does:

“Yet in what shape know I myself again.
My human form is lost and gone from me;
Like some fierce dragon do I see myself;
Begotten out of primal lust and greed.
And clearly do I see how up till now
Some dim deluding veil of phantom forms
Hath hid from me mine own monstrosity.”

Our
inner being is harnessed, as it were elastically, and is thus
hidden from us. Truly we learn to know ourselves as ‘some
fierce dragon’ when we learn to know Initiation.
Therefore these words are derived from the very deepest
feeling; they are not words of morbid introspection, but of
true self-knowledge: —

Fundamentally the two are the same; first as the object, then
as the subject. ‘I willed to flee from thee …’

This flight, however, leads him all the more into himself. And
now the ‘company’ emerges — in which we really are when
we look into ourselves. This ‘company’ consists of our own
cravings and passions, — all that we did not notice
before, because every time we wanted to look into ourselves our
gaze was diverted to the world around us. Compared to the inner
life into which we tried to look, the world is a world of
wondrous beauty. Here, then, we cease to look into ourselves in
the illusion or Maya of life.

When human beings around us indulge in vain chatter and we grow
tired of it, we take flight in solitude. For certain stages of
development, it is important to do so. We can collect
ourselves. We should collect ourselves in this way; it
is a means of self-knowledge. Nevertheless, there are these
experiences we come into a ‘company’ where we can no more be
lonely. For at this stage — it matters not, whether
within us or without us — beings appear who will not let
us be alone. Then comes the experience which man is meant to
have. Solitude itself brings him into the worst society of all:
—

“Man's final refuge hath been lost to me;
I have been robbed of solitude.”

All
these are real experiences, but you must not let their very
intensity become a snare. Do not imagine, if such experiences
are presented in their full intensity, that you should
therefore be afraid. Do not imagine that these things are
meant to divert any one from diving down himself into these
waters. One may not experience them at once with the same
intensity as Johannes did. He had to experience them thus for a
definite purpose, — in a certain sense, even prematurely.
Regular self-development will go at quite another pace. The
fact that it takes place in-Johannes so tumultuously, should be
conceived as an individual matter. Because he is an
individuality who has suffered shipwreck inasmuch as he
infringes on these laws, therefore it all takes place in him in
a far more tempestuous way. He learns to know these laws, in
that they throw him deeply out of his balance.

Nevertheless, what is here described of Johannes is intended to
call forth the feeling that true self-knowledge has nothing to
do with trite or easy phrases. Self-knowledge, if it be true,
can do no other to begin with than to lead through suffering
and grief. Things that were hitherto a refreshment take
on another countenance when they appear in the field of
self-knowledge. No doubt, we can pray for solitude, even though
we have already found self-knowledge. Nevertheless
in certain moments of self-knowledge, solitude may be the very
thing we lose, if we seek it in our hitherto accustomed way. It
is in moments when we flow out into the objective world, and
when the lonely one suffers the direst pain of all.

This pouring-out of ourselves into other beings, — we
must learn to feel it rightly if we would feel what this Play
contains. It is conceived with a certain aesthetic feeling; it
is ‘spiritually realistic,’ through and through. A realist with
true aesthetic feeling suffers a certain pain at an unrealistic
presentation. Here again, that can give satisfaction at a
certain stage can be a source of pain at another. All this
depends upon the way of self-knowledge. When for example you
have understood a play of Shakespeare's — a great
work, in the external world — it may no doubt be a source
of aesthetic pleasure to you. Nevertheless, there may
occur a moment of development when you are no longer satisfied.
You feel your inner being rent as you go on from scene to
scene. You no longer see any necessity in the sequence of
one scene after another. You feel it quite unnatural that one
scene is placed next to the other. Why so? Because there is
nothing to hold the scenes together, — only the writer
Shakespeare, and the onlooker. There is an abstract principle
of causality and no reality of being in the sequence of the
scenes. It is a characteristic of Shakespeare's dramas; nothing
is indicated that works karmically through and through and
holds the whole together.

The
Rosicrucian Mystery Play, on the other hand, is realistic
— spiritually realistic. Much is required of Johannes
Thomasius. Without actively partaking in any important
role, he is there the stage. He is the one in whose soul it is
all taking place. What is described is the development of the
soul — the real experiences that are undergone in the
soul's development.

The
soul of Johannes, realistically, spins one scene out of
another. Here, then, we see that the realistic and the
spiritual are in no contradiction to each other. The
‘materialistic’ and the spiritual need not — although
they can — be in contradiction to each other. The
realistic and the spiritual certainly need not be in
contradiction to each other. Moreover, a materialist can
thoroughly admire what is realistic in a spiritual sense.
Shakespeare's dramas can certainly be described as realistic in
terms of an aesthetic principle. But you will also
understand that an Art which goes hand in hand with Theosophy
eventually leads to this: — For him who experiences his
own self in the Cosmos, the whole Cosmos becomes an Ego-being.
Therefore we cannot abide it that anything should meet
him in the Cosmos which does not stand in relation to the
Ego-being. Art will in this respect have to learn that which
will bring it to the principle of the Ego. For in effect,
Christ once upon a time brought us the I. In the most varied
spheres this I will live and find expression.

This human reality of the soul, and on the other hand this
dismemberment in the world outside, shows itself also in
another way. If at that time someone asked: Which person
is Atma, which is Buddhi, and which Manas? … truly it was
a dreadful Art if it had to be thus interpreted, as saying:
‘This character or that is a personification of Manas.’
There are such theosophical abuses, trying to interpret
things in this direction. One could only say of a work of Art
that had to be interpreted in such a way, Poor work of Art!
Certainly, for Shakespeare's plays it would be utterly
false and laughable. These are but illnesses of childhood in
the theosophical movement, and we shall wean ourselves of
them in time. But it is necessary to draw attention to them.
Someone might even set to work and look for the nine members of
human nature in the Ninth Symphony!

Yet
it is right in a certain sense that the single and united human
nature is also distributed among many human beings. One human
being has this colouring of soul, and another that. Thus,
we can see the human beings before us, representing many sides
of the total human nature. Only it must be conceived in a
realistic way, it must arise out of the very nature of things.
Even as human beings meet us in the ordinary world, there too
they represent the several sides of human nature. As we unfold
ourselves from incarnation to incarnation, we shall become a
totality in time. To present the underlying truth of these
things, the whole of life must be dissolved. So, it is in the
Rosicrucian Mystery Play. What is intended, in a certain sense,
to represent Maria, is dissolved among the other figures who
are about her as her companions and who with her together
constitute an Ego-hood. Qualities notably of the Sentient Soul
are to be seen in Philia; qualities of the Intellectual or
Mind-soul in Astrid; qualities of the Spiritual Soul in Luna.
And in this sense their names are chosen.

The
names are chosen for the several beings according to
their nature. Not only in the names; in the whole way in which
the words are placed, the characterisation of the three —
Philia, Astrid and Luna — is exactly graded. This is
especially true of the seventh scene, where the Spiritual
— Devachan — is to be shown. The beginning of the
seventh scene is a far better characterisation of ‘Sentient
Soul, Intellectual Soul and Spiritual Soul’ than can otherwise
be given in mere words. Human figures are shown, in answer to
the question: What is ‘Sentient Soul,’
what is ‘Intellectual Soul’ and what is
‘Spiritual Soul’? In Art, the different
stages can be shown, through the whole way in which these
figures stand there. In the human being they flow into one
another. Once they are dissolved from one another, they present
themselves in this way: Philia places herself into the
Universal All, Astrid into the elements, while Luna goes
outward in self-action and self-knowledge. And inasmuch as they
present themselves in this way, the Devachanic scene contains
all that can represent Alchemy in the true sense of the word.
The whole of Alchemy is there contained; only we must gradually
find it out. It is given not n the mere abstract content, but
in the life and being of the words. Therefore, you should not
only hear what is said, — and above all, not only
what each individual speaks; — you should hear how
they speak, in relation to one another. The Sentient Soul
inserts herself into the astral body here, then, we have to do
with weaving astrality. The Intellectual Soul inserts herself
into the ether-body; here, then, we have to do with living,
moving ether-essence. Lastly, we see how the Spiritual Soul
adorns herself and with inner firmness pours herself into the
physical body. That which works through the Soul, as light
within the soul, is given in the words of Philia. That which
works in an etheric way, so that we stand over against what is
true, is given in Astrid. That which gives inner firmness, so
that it is united with the physical body which is primarily
solid, is given in Luna We must be sensitive to this.

Philia
(Sentient Soul)

Ich will erfullen mich

I will myself imbue

Mit klarstem Lichtessein

With clearest rays of light

Aus Weltenweiten.

From cosmic spaces wide.

Ich will eratrnen mir

I will breathe deep within

Belebenden Klangesstoff

Sound-substance that gives life

Aus Aetherfernen,

From distant ether-bounds,

Dass dir, geliebte Schwester,

Dear sister, that thou may'st

Das Werk gelingen kann.

Succeed in this thy work.

Astrid
(Intellectual Soul)

Ich will verweben

Through all the streaming light

Erstrahlend Licht

I will weave darkness in

Mit dämpfender Finsternis,

To cloud its radiant beam.

Ich will verdichten

I will make dense and thick

Das Klanges leben.

The living life of sound;

Es soll erglitzernd klingen,

That glowing it may sound

Es soll erklingend glitzern,

And sounding it may glow.

Dass du, geliebte Schwester,

Dear sister, that thou may'st

Die Seelenstrahlen lenken kannst.

Direct the soul-life's rays.

Luna
(Spiritual Soul)

Ich will erwärmen Seelenstoff

Soul substance will I warm,

Und will erhärten Lebensäther.

Life's ether harden too.

Sie sollen sich verdichten,

That they may thus condense

Sie sollen sich erfühlen,

And may thus feel themselves

Und in sich selber seiend,

As living in themselves

Sich schaffend halten;

And powerful to create.

Dass du, geliebte Schwester,

Dear sister, that thou may'st

Der suchenden Menschenseele

Prove wisdom's certainty

Des Wissens Sicherheit erzeugen Kannst.

To mankind's seeking soul.

I
draw your attention to the fact that Philia, in the last line
but one, uses the words ‘Dass dir, geliebte Schwester.’
In Astrid's words we have the darker sound ‘Dass du,
geliebte Schwester,’ entering into the denser element.
‘Dassdu, ...dass dir ...’
And now in Luna's words it is interwoven with the still more
weighty sound, ‘in suchenden Menschenseele.’ Here the
u is so interwoven with the neighbouring
consonants as to gain a still closer density.

These are the things we can characterise. They are indeed like
this. It depends above all on the manner, not on
the mere content. Compare the further words of Philia:
—

Ich will erbitten von Weltengeistern,

From cosmic spirits I

Dass ihres Wesens Licht

Will beg their being's light

Entzücke Seelensinn,

The soul-sense to enchant,

Und ihrer Worte Klang

The sound too of their words

Beglucke Geistgehor;

To charm the spirit's ear;

with the quite different way in which Astrid speaks:
—

Ich will die Liebesstöme,

The love-streams will I guide

Die Welt erwarmenden

That will fill the world with warmth

Zu Herzen leiten

Unto the heart of man

Dem Geweihten;

Who is initiate;

In
all these words there is conveyed the inner life and being of
the Devachanic element of the world. Through these things we
must realise (and for this reason I mention them) that when
self-knowledge begins to go out into the outer life and being
of the Universe, we need to wean ourselves of all
one-sidedness. We can but experience in a dead and
Philistine way that which is present at each single point of
existence. It makes us rigid to be held fast at a single point
in space and to imagine that we can express the truth in words.
Mere words cannot express the truth so well, for it is all
involved in the actual physical sound. We must feel the quality
of expression also.

Such an important process as the self-knowledge of Johannes is
only rightly experienced when he courageously achieves
it, when he grasps it bravely. This is the next act.
Self-knowledge has shattered us and cast us down. Now, having
learned in the Universe outside — having perceived the
Cosmos as related to us; having known the very being of other
beings, — now we begin to take it into
ourselves. Now we make bold to live what we have
known. It is only half the battle to dive down, as Johannes
did, into a being to whom we brought suffering — whom we
‘thrust deep beneath the chill, cold ground.’ We now feel
differently; we take courage to balance-out the pain. Then we
dive down into this life, and in our own being we speak
differently. This, to begin with, is what meets us in the next
scene.

While in the second scene the other being called to
Johannes:

“Ah, bitter sorrow hath he brought to me;
So utterly I trusted him of old.
He left me lonely with my sorrow's pain,
He robbed me of the very warmth of life,

And thrust me deep beneath the chill, cold ground.”

— now, in the ninth scene, now that Johannes has
experienced himself at the place whither all self-knowledge
drives us, now; the same being calls to him:

“Thou must find me again and ease my pain.”

This is the other side. First the shattering experience, and
then the needed compensation. Therefore, the other being calls
to him: ‘Thou wilt find me again.’

This lifting of experience into the Universe — this
filling of the self with living experience of the Universal All
— could be presented in no other way. True self-knowledge
— emerging as it does out of the Cosmos — could
only be presented in that Johannes awakened with the very same
words. Quite naturally it must begin thus in the second scene:
—

“'Tis thus I hear them, now these many years,
These words of weighty import all around.”

But
then, when he has dived down into the ground of earth, —
united himself with the earth beneath, — then there
arises in his soul the force to let the words arise in a new
form. That is essential (in the ninth scene):

“... For three long years
I have sought strength of soul, with courage winged,
Which doth give truth unto these words, whereby
A man may free himself to conquer first;
Then conquering himself may freedom find ...”

Then come the words: ‘Know thou thyself, O man!’ by contrast to
the words in the second scene: ‘O man, feel thou thyself!’

Again, and again, the same picture meets us. While on the one
hand the scene goes downward:

“It seems mine own peculiarities
And all the world besides live in these words:
‘Know thou thyself, O man! Know thou thyself!’”

afterwards it is reversed; it changes. The scene portrays the
real process. So, too, we heard the terrible, shattering
word in the second scene: —

“But then, Maria, does thou realise
Through what my soul hath fought its way but now?”

“Man's final refuge hath been lost to me:
I have been robbed of solitude.”

And
in the ninth scene it is shown how his being only now gains
confidence and certainty. Such is the congruence of
the two scenes. These are not purposeful constructions. The
real experiences are so and must be so — quite as a
matter of course. Thus, we should feel how in a soul such as
Johannes Thomasius, self-knowledge is gradually purified, till
it becomes living self-experience. And we should feel how this
experience of Johannes is distributed over many human beings.
His own self-knowledge is distributed over all the human beings
in whom — in their single incarnations—the
several portions of his being are expressed. In the
Sun-Temple at the last, a whole company of human beings are
there. They all are there like a tableau, and yet all together
are a single man. The properties of a single human being are
distributed among them all. It is at bottom a single human
being. A pedant would say: ‘Then there are too many parts,
there should be nine instead of twelve.’ Reality, however, does
not create so as to agree with theories; yet it is more in
agreement with the truth than if in regular and theoretic
fashion the several members of the human being were to be
marched on to the stage.

Imagine yourself now in the Sun-Temple. There are the single
human beings, placed in the actual way in which they belong
together karmically. There they are standing together, even as
Karma has put them -together in life. And now imagine: Johannes
himself is there, and the character of every single one is
reflected in his soul. Each single one is a soul-quality of
Johannes. What, then, has happened — if we sum up the
result? Karma has brought them together, as at a nodal point of
Karma. Nothing is meaningless, aimless or purposeless.
All that the single human beings have done, signifies not only
single events, but in each case an experience of Johannes'
soul. Everything takes place twice over: in the Macrocosm and
in the Microcosm — the soul of Johannes. And that is his
Initiation.

For
instance, as Maria is to Johannes himself, so is an, important
member of his soul to another member of the soul. These are the
real congruences, strictly carried out. That which is action
outwardly, — inwardly in Johannes is a process of
evolution. That which the Hierophant says in the third scene is
about to happen here: —

“Within our circle there is formed a knot
Of threads that Karma spins, world-fashioning.”

The
knot has been formed. The well-tied knot reveals whither all is
leading. On the one hand is the absolute reality —
the way in which Karma spins, world-fashioning. It is no
aimless spinning. It is the knot as the
Initiation-process in Johannes' soul. And yet, such is the
whole, that a single hum-an individuality is there over and
above them all. It is the Hierophant, who plays his active part
and guides the several threads.

You
need only think of the Hierophant in his relation to
Maria. This passage in the third scene can indeed illumine what
self-knowledge is. It is no joke to go out of oneself; it is a
very real process. The human vehicles are deserted by the inner
force; then they remain behind and become a battlefield for
subordinate powers. The very moment when Maria is sending down
to the Hierophant the ray of love, can be presented in no other
way than thus: Down there is the body, taken hold of by the
power of the Adversary, and saying the very opposite of what is
going on above. Above, the ray of love rays down; below, a
curse is uttered. These then are the contrasting scenes:
Devachan in the seventh scene, Maria describing what she
actually did; and in the third scene the world below, where, as
the body is left behind, the curse of the demonic Powers
against the Hierophant is uttered. Here you have two
complementary pictures. It would be very bad if one had
to construct them so, artificially.

To-day, then, I have based my lecture on one aspect of
the Mystery Play. I hope we have thus been able to illumine
certain characteristic facts that underlie Initiation.

The
fact that certain things have had to be sharply emphasised
— so as to describe the processes of Initiation —
should not render you pusillanimous in striving for the
spiritual world. Descriptions of dangers have no other purpose
than to steel the human being against adversary powers. The
dangers are there, the pains and sufferings are certainly
before us. It would be a very poor aspiration if we were only
willing to ascend into the higher worlds, so to speak, by the
most comfortable ways. The spiritual worlds cannot be attained
as comfortably as in modern railway trains, where you
simply let yourself be rolled along, or as the outer material
culture generally does it in the things of outer life. That
which is here described is not intended to make us lacking in
courage; quite on the contrary. Our courage shall be steeled
precisely by making ourselves acquainted in this way with the
attendant dangers of Initiation.

Just as it is in Johannes Thomasius, whose tendency made him
incapable of guiding the brush any longer, and this was
translated into dire pain, and pain at length into knowledge;
so too, all that which kindles pain and grief will be
translated into knowledge.

But
we must seek the path in real earnest. We can only do so by
realising that the theosophical truths are not so simple
after all. They are deep truths of life, — so much so
that we can never come to an end in seeking to comprehend them.
Examples of life itself enable us most nearly to
comprehend the world. We can speak far more exactly of
the conditions of higher development when we describe the
development of Johannes, than we can do when we describe the
human being's development in general. In the book Knowledge
of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment, the higher
evolution is described such as it can be for every human being.
The pure possibility, which can indeed be realised, is
there described. When we describe Johannes on the other hand,
we describe a, single human being, and in so doing it is not
possible to us to portray higher development in the
abstract.

I
hope you will not find occasion to say that after all I have
not yet told you the truth. The fact is, there are two
extremes, and we must find the grades between them. All I can
do is again and again to give you hints and suggestions. These
must then live in your hearts and souls. After the hints, I
recently gave you on St. Matthew's Gospel I said, ‘Try not to
remember the literal words, but when you go out into the world
try to create in heart and soul that which the words will there
have become. Try not to read only in Lecture Cycles, but also
with earnestness to read in your own soul.’ To do so, however,
something must first have been given to you from outside;
something must first have passed into your soul; otherwise, you
would only be deceiving yourself. Try then to read it in your
soul, and you will see that that which has sounded into your
soul from outside will yet resound there in quite another
form.

This and this alone would be the true anthroposophical
striving: — In every lecture that is given, there should
be as many different ways of understanding as there are
listeners present. He who would speak about Theosophy can never
wish to be understood in one way only; he would fain be
understood in as many ways as individual souls are there.
Spiritual Science can afford this.

One
thing, however, is necessary — I do not say it as a mere
aside. One thing is necessary, namely that every single way of
understanding be true. It may be individual, but it must be
true. Some people go so far in their individual ways of
understanding that they understand the exact opposite of what
is said!

Thus, if we speak of self-knowledge, we must also realise: It
is more useful in self-knowledge to look for the mistakes
within us and the True outside ourselves. We do not say: ‘Seek
for the truth within thyself.’ No! You will find what is true
in the world outside, it is poured out into the Universe.
We must become free of ourselves through self-knowledge, and we
must go through all these stages of the soul. Loneliness can be
a very bad companion; but we can also feel the full
measure of our own weakness, when in our soul we sense the
echoing greatness of that Universe from out of which we
are born. And at this moment we take courage. If we make bold
to experience in life what we cognise, then we shall find
it confirmed: — Out of the loss of the last refuge
of our life there will spring forth life's first and last
refuge — life's first and last security. It is that
certainty which makes it possible for us first to
overcome ourselves, and then to find ourselves
anew—in that we find ourselves within the Cosmos.

Oh man, experience the World in thee!
Then only, going beyond thyself,
Thou wilt have found thyself in thy true being.

If
we feel these things as living experience, they will become
steps in our evolution.